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Originally Posted by vMike  Again, animals have instincts, habits, not clear thoughts, or desires and definitely not self-conscience as we do. They are not capable of imagination. And that's been proven scientifically. Sure they can do a bunch of stuff, have sharp teeth and can run really fast. But they spend their whole day on basic needs like food, security, building a shelter and mating. |
Can you cite any scientific study that shows exactly how animals experience life?
I don't think anybody knows exactly how others perceive life, but we can make predictions based on our way to perceive it and the reactions we observe from others.
For example, if you poke a pig with a hot stick, the pig will probably scream and run from you. From that you'll assume that the animal feels something similar to what you'd feel if you were burned.
When I show a leash to my dog, he starts to jump all over me and gets all excited because he knows he's going out for a walk. And during the walk he gets so engaged and focused on his own world, I could never guess what's going on in his mind.
My girlfriend had two dogs that lived together for 10 years. When one of them died, the other one got visibly depressed for months. So, IMO, animals do have emotions, memories, desires. They might not understand them the way we do, but that doesn't mean we should ignore them.
But let's suppose you're right. Animals are like rocks that feel pain and that's why we can do whatever we want with them. Now, how about people with mental disorders that don't understand the world around them? Would it be right to use them for our most trivial desires?
Pain is pain, my friend. Whether you know how to build rockets or not.
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Originally Posted by vMike What does this have to do with our superiority over animals? People have morals, rules and extremely complicated social structures. This is what makes us human, we govern our own lives and live in peace with each other (well, mostly). We choose to live our own way and pursue our goals and ideals, which may be different of what our parents, society and nature have planned for us. We don't need to live based on instincts developed by millions of years of evolution, but rather make our own fate. |
You're contradicting yourself. On the other post you based your behavior on lions, now you say that we have morals and should not base our actions simply on instincts.
I think you're ready to find any excuse you can to justify your habit. But at the end of the day you're just killing sentient beings for no other reason than pleasure and convenience.